The humanity of Malcolm X in his own words

By PATRICK DELICES |
11/1/2013, 8:33 a.m.

The daughter of Malcolm X, human rights activist Ilyasah Al-Shabazz

Award winning journalist Herb Boyd and the daughter of Malcolm X, human rights activist Ilyasah Al-Shabazz will launch to the public the long awaited diary of Malcolm X. The anticipated launch date is set for November 10 on the 50th anniversary of “Message to the Grassroots,” an electrifying and commanding speech delivered by Malcolm X in 1963 at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, the hometown of Herb Boyd.

In The Diary of Malcolm X, Boyd and Al-Shabazz provide the reader with a poignant memory of Malcolm X, one of the greatest leaders and humanitarians in African-American history, who unabashedly championed the global cause of sovereignty for Africans worldwide. Boyd and Al-Shabazz, in The Diary of Malcolm X, succeed immensely in not only producing quality research and knowledge, but ultimately like Malcolm X, in producing quality people by way of their impeccable research and exemplary deeds.

Boyd and Al-Shabazz render valid Malcolm’s mickle esse, intellectualism, socio-political propositions, economic strategy, and perspicacious global discernment without yielding to prevarications, absurdities, personal dissolutions and idealist notions regarding Malcolm’s life as a global Black leader, caring father, and loving husband. For Boyd, The Diary of Malcolm X is “part of Malcolm’s historical records” that “humanizes him in a way that some of these other scholars set out to do.” Hence, The Diary of Malcolm X is an exposition to Malcolm’s humanity where the reader will engage Malcolm X in his own words and thoughts. As a result, no one needs to humanize Malcolm X because in his diary, Malcolm X clearly humanizes himself.

In regards to The Diary of Malcolm X, Al-Shabazz states, “It’s really beautiful that we get to see Malcolm in his own voice – without scholars, historians, or observers saying what he was thinking or what he was doing or what he meant.” Accordingly, for Boyd, The Diary of Malcolm X is “probably the most critical thing that he left behind” because it is simply “Malcolm uninterrupted –without any kind of editorial interference” where “Malcolm needs to speak and have his own words heard without any type of intervention.”

Moreover, in The Diary of Malcolm X, Boyd indicates that Malcolm’s daily entries were “compiled over two trips Malcolm made to Africa and the Middle East” which, as a masterpiece of historiography, “will add to the literary canon” in institutions of higher education. Boyd further states that Malcolm did not miss a single day in recording his thoughts during that period – thus, an attestation to Malcolm’s fecund regiment and self-mastery.

Boyd and Al-Shabazz magnificently append their own editorial commentaries as they reasonably amend Malcolm’s distinctive handwritten entries of more than 200 pages on his socio-political experience overseas along with his exegesis on global events. Thus, from his first entry on April 15, 1964 to his last on November 17, 1964, the reader will ascertain Malcolm’s effulgence, commitment, leadership, and humanity.

In addition, by emending and sharing The Diary of Malcolm X, Boyd and Al-Shabazz import Malcolm X’s prophetic wisdom and political lucidity. As a result, The Diary of Malcolm X deflates western idealism and posthumously rebukes perfidious scholarship regarding Malcolm’s life, work, and mission where scantly attempts to humanize him recoiled due to grounded research and the applicability of primary documents and sources.